1. Field of the Invention
My musical instrument has a keyboard with only five lower digitals per octave span, to play a pentatonic scale. In the preferred embodiment, one upper digital is disposed between each two adjacent lower digitals. The top parts of the upper digitals are easily removable and interchangeable, so that the keyboard can be rearranged with seven lower digitals per octave span, to play the diatonic scale.
The musical tones are electrically keyed. A scale selector switch is provided to switch from one pentatonic scale to another, or to the diatonic scale.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The origin of the standard keyboard is obscure. The article on "Keyboard" in the 1954 edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians states, "We are without definite information as to the origin of the keyboard . . . The first keyboard would be diatonic . . . When the row of sharps was introduced, and whether at once or by degrees, we do not know. We find them complete in a trustworthy pictorial representation of the 15th century." Pitch selecting mechanisms were developed in the 19th century. Organs with pentatonic and hexatonic keyboards are described in my copending U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 395,002, filed 9-7-73, and now U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,685, and Ser. No. 486,973, filed 7-10-74 and now U.S. Pat. No. 3,865,004.
I have found that children rapidly acquire an appreciation of music if they are encouraged to experiment and improvise simple melodies and harmonies in a pentatonic scale. Elimination of the two semitonal intervals from the diatonic scale decreases the likelihood of getting unwanted pitch combinations and greatly increases the ability to pick out a tune. Early training of relatively young children is possible if they are allowed to sing songs and simultaneously play them on a keyboard instrument. The keyboard serves as a direct graphical representation of tonal relationships for the singer. This approach, attempted on the traditional keyboard, is marred by the danger of hitting the wrong digital, with its distracting influences. The danger is greatly reduced on my simplified keyboard, where the number of either lower or upper digitals per octave span is equal to the number of fingers on the hand.
Moreover, children's small hands can span an octave more easily if the number of lower digitals in a keyboard is reduced below the traditional number of seven per octave span.
When children are learning sight singing, they become confused by the traditional musical notation which sometimes represents a particular note on the line of a staff, and at other times in a space between the lines. More confusion is caused when a boy who has been trained to sing on the treble staff must learn to sing on the bass staff, where the lines and spaces are differently labeled. In music written for my pentatonic instrument, some of my notes are always assigned to lines, the other notes are always assigned to spaces. Moreover, the labeling of the lines in the lower staff is the same as the labeling in the upper staff.